


What Else Could I Say

by raendown



Series: NaNoWriMo 2020 Drabbles [96]
Category: Naruto
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-17
Updated: 2019-11-17
Packaged: 2021-02-08 01:43:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 821
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21468007
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raendown/pseuds/raendown
Summary: TenTen has a very important question for her boyfriend.
Relationships: Hyuuga Neji/Tenten
Series: NaNoWriMo 2020 Drabbles [96]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1533161
Comments: 2
Kudos: 53





	What Else Could I Say

If her heart beat any faster TenTen was honestly worried if might crash its way right out of her chest but there was no going back now. She’d spent the last three months visiting shops on every mission that took her to a new city, scouring every place in Konoha that sold rings, and it had taken her until last week to find the perfect one. Now that she had it there was no way she was going to waste all that effort by chickening out when it came down to crunch time.

No matter how loudly that little voice in the back of her mind asked what she would do if Neji said no. She had no answer for that question but it didn’t matter. He was not going to say no. Neji loved her, of that she was sure, and there was no reason the two of them shouldn’t spend the rest of their lives together. Well, no reason other than the fact that she was a clanless nobody and his elders were notoriously particular about who was allowed to marry in to the Hyuga bloodline. TenTen tried not to concentrate on that line of thought.

Seeing Neji come in to view both doubled the butterflies in her stomach and sent a wave of calm washing through her. Just like that anxiety became excitement, pure and clean. He’d always had that sort of steadying effect on her.

“Evening,” her partner greeted her with a small kiss to the cheek.

“Hey.”

“Why did you want to meet all the way out here?” Neji looked around at the trees and bushes surrounding them, an area they both knew quite well despite not having been back to this spot in several years.

Taking a deep breath, TenTen looked around as well. “We met here, remember?”

“Ah, yes. You’ve been a part of my life for so long now that sometimes I forget you were in a different class at the academy.”

“Right. The first time I saw you I was standing exactly here.” She indicated the small patch of rocky grass at her feet, right next to the tree stump where Gai-sensei had demonstrated his strength to welcome his three new precious students.

Neji cocked his head to the side. “A trip down memory lane?” he guessed.

He looked almost concerned to see TenTen fiddle her hands together in a manner most unlike her usual confidence. Before he could ask about that as well she cleared her throat and forced herself to stop fiddling, reaching out to take his hands with her own instead. She never felt steadier than when she could hold her most precious person. Neji was her rock. It was time she finally expressed how much he meant to her in the best way she could think of.

“The day we met I didn’t realize how much you would change my life, how much of a better person you would help me become, or how happy we would make each other. I owe so many things to you and to the support you’ve given me for so long.”

“I…TenTen…” Neji blinked his pale eyes at her, startled by the depth of her words.

“Really I should have asked you this a long time ago but I had to find the perfect way to ask and I just couldn’t think of anything that was worthy of you. So I guess this will have to do.” Letting one hand drop, she reached in to her pocket and pulled out the ring that had taken so long to find. “I can’t tell you how happy it would make me if you would be my husband. Hyuga Neji, will you marry me?”

Specially crafted of chakra resistant metal and studded with two pale gemstones almost the same beautiful pale shade as his eyes, she’d known it was the ring she wanted to propose with the moment she found it in some back alley shop on a trip to Tea Country. Neji stared at it with wonder on his face.

“What else could I say but yes?” he whispered.

“You mean it?” TenTen asked breathlessly.

“Of course I mean it! I would have no one else.” The sheer sincerity of his voice brought tears to her eyes and TenTen cursed her weakness. She’d promised herself she wouldn’t cry.

“Neither would I,” she said.

When Neji opened his arms TenTen fell in to them without thinking only to smile and laugh in to his shoulder a little as she realized she hadn’t put the ring on his finger yet. Pulling away just then was the last thing she wanted, however, so she tucked herself in a little tighter and closed her eyes. This was everything she wanted for the rest of her life. No words in any language could possibly encompass how happy it made her to know that Neji felt the same way.


End file.
